Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
Running your own business can be equal parts exciting and overwhelming. It requires you to keep a lot of balls in the air. Whether you’re starting a new business from the ground up, expanding a growing business, or maintaining your established business, there are a lot of legal issues to consider. These include filing with your state’s Secretary of State, agreements for the operation of your business, vendor agreements, independent contractor agreements, licenses, trademarks, copyrights, and so much more. The experienced lawyers at Creative Law Network are experts in the field of business law. We have helped countless businesses and startups get their legal ducks in a row and protected them as they grow! Check out our Entrepreneur Legal Checklist for a list of things to consider and ways we can help.
What Can a Lawyer do For You?
As lawyers specializing in business law, we help our clients navigate the business world with confidence knowing that they have the proper protections and frameworks in place for success. This includes forming entities, drafting operating agreements and bylaws to govern those entities, drafting contracts for business operations, negotiating deals, protecting trademarks and other intellectual property, reviewing documents, and helping get things done. It means maximizing our clients’ rights and revenue. And it means providing guidance on the ins and outs of successfully growing and protecting your business. Essentially, we are here to handle the legal stuff so you can grow your business to reach new heights of success! Please reach out to us at Creative Law Network if you have any questions. We’re here to help!
Legal Checklist:
Entrepreneurs take a passion and build it into a livelihood. Building a successful business is no easy feat. It requires managing innumerable moving parts and it can be hard to focus on all these parts as you try to build your business and make money. Making sure things are in order and done correctly can set you apart and put you on a path to success. So we’ve put together this basic checklist for business owners and entrepreneurs. This list isn’t exhaustive or in any particular order, and not every item is relevant to every business. It can be a guide to keep you on track as you build and grow your business.
Forming a company (like a limited liability company (LLC) or corporation) with your state’s Secretary of State is the first step to setting up and running your business. These filings can be deceivingly tricky and proper filings provide protection from personal liability. (Look here for more about business formation.)
Every entity needs detailed internal documentation to govern how the business operates. These documents are Operating Agreements for LLCs and Bylaws for corporations. This documentation dictates how to run your business, how money is distributed, how to make decisions, how to sell your business or take on investors, what happens with your business when you die, and so much more. These documents must be tailored to your particular business and how you want things done.
Every business has a trademark and that trademark should be protected! Federal trademark registration is the best protection for your business/trade name and/or logo. If you are selling products or services under a brand name, Federal trademark registration is important protection for your brand name. If someone else is using your trademark, you’re required to defend it. (Look here for more about trademarks.)
How about copyrights? If you use photos, videos, graphics, presentations, artwork, design, stories, or any other creative work, those works are copyrights that must protected and licensed properly! Registering and protecting the copyrights in your works is crucial. (Look here for more about copyrights.) If you’re using others’ creative works, then you’ll want to have written permission (a license) to do so.
Whether you’re hiring employees or independent contractors, having agreements with those workers is extremely important for your business. Clearly laying out the rights, expectations, obligations, and payment of those you hire to perform services for your company is crucial to protect your business.
'Confidential information (including trade secrets) must be handled with care and planning. Growing or maintaining a business can require sharing confidential information with others (e.g. investors, employees, independent contractors). Protection of your data, confidential information, and trade secrets can be invaluable. Having non-disclosure protections like confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) can help protect the details that make your business operations unique and successful.
Transacting business is often about exchanging rights and those exchanges must be documented properly. A good license agreement can mean the difference between a successful venture and a failure.
You put a lot into your business and you don’t want others to steal your contacts or customers. Non-competition agreements can prevent others using from competing with you. Non-solicitation agreements can prevent others from stealing your business or contacts and interfering with your relationships. These are important protections but only allowed under certain circumstances so must be used properly.
CONTRACTS! Contracts can be confusing but are necessary for any deal. Getting solid contracts in place is crucial and can help avoid legal problems in the future. Whether you’re selling products, providing services, licensing rights, or purchasing goods or rights, a solid agreement is absolutely critical. As a business owner, you will rely on all sorts of contracts. (See more about contracts here.) These contracts can cover how you’re paid, ownership, deliverables, insurance, liability, employment, and so much more. Creative Law Network can help in all facets of your business from formation, internal governance documents, intellectual property, negotiations, and more!
If you need any help with anything listed above, please reach out to us at Creative Law Network!